This invention relates to orthopedic support apparatus for infants and more particularly to apparatus enabling an infant or young child to be properly supported while in a seated position.
Small children as infants from a few months to one year cannot support themselves conveniently in a seated position. The prior art has devised a number of various devices generally designated as baby holders, both for children's chairs, strollers and various other carriers of all sorts. Certain of these devices provide support means such as straps and harnesses which will enable the infant's mother or guardian to place the infant in the carrier and strap the infant in a comfortable position. In any event, certain of these devices suffer in that the infant is not properly supported and tends to assume uncomfortable and undesirable positions.
It is, of course, understood that it is desirable for the health and comfort of such infants as well as for the proper orthopedic development of such infants to maintain a relatively proper posture in order to keep the infant's head aligned with the spine. As one can readily ascertain, if the infant is allowed to assume a helpless prone posture, such a posture may result in various growth problems such as a tendency of the child to develop scoliosis, which is a lateral curvature of the spine.
It is thus extremely desirable to support a child in a relatively comfortable position when the child is emplaced in a baby carrier apparatus such as a stroller, car seat or various other devices. The prior art has been cognizant of the above problems and there are a great many patents which attempt to provide support for infants or young children in various manners.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,324,421 entitled SUPPORTING STAND FOR INFANTS issued on July 13, 1943 to A. J. Ouellette describes a supporting stand for an infant which employs a harness and a crotch belt in combination with a supporting stand having protruding arms to allow the infant to lean from side to side. The apparatus does not provide good postural support.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,404,505 entitled BABY SUPPORTER issued on July 23, 1946 to M. P. Knecht shows a baby supporter which includes a belt that can be strapped around the baby and is attached or secured to a pad or cushion having a slight contour to accommodate the child's back.
Other patents as U.S. Pat No. 2,652,183 entitled BABY HOLDER FOR CHILDREN'S CHAIRS issued on Sept. 15, 1953 to B. Hlivka shows a holder for a child's chair, which holder is fabricated from a fabric and has a crotch or diaper section which is secured about the child to hold the child in place.
There are other patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,542,421 which show an adjustable back support for adults and which shows the use of adjustable Velcro pads. Other patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,992,057 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,961 depict adjustable chairs and automobile seats for accommodating a child.
Generally speaking, although the prior art is replete with a great number of patents relating to various support apparatus for infants, most of these devices suffer in that they do not properly support the child and cannot be easily adjustable to support infants of varying sizes. A further problem of many of the prior art devices is that they are not adapted to be used with alternate types of carriers such as strollers, car seats and so on. As one can ascertain from the prior art, many of these devices are permanently affixed to the baby carrier and therefore form an integral part therewith.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved support apparatus for an infant, which apparatus can accommodate infants of various sizes, while maintaining the infant in a proper postural position to thereby aid in the postural development of the child. The apparatus to be described is extremely simple to fabricate and relatively economical, while achieving an optimum support position for the child.